Threshold Presents The Hunted #1 – Cosmic DC

The new space-faring anthology series from Keith Giffen gives us a rogue Green Lantern running for his life.

Spinning out of last week's Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #1 comes Threshold – or, more specifically, Threshold Presents The Hunted #1. It appears that with the cancellation of DCU Presents, Threshold will become the new DC anthology series, but set to focus on the cosmic arena of the New 52 world.

Writer Keith Giffen's first installment picks up "Deep Cover" Green Lantern Jediah Caul right where the last issue left him – captured by Lady Styx's jerks and forced into a "Glimmernet" show called The Hunted, which is essentially The Running Man, except instead of a few cool guys like Sub-Zero, Buzzsaw and Captain Freedom as the hunters, it's absolutely everybody in the world who wants to take a crack at it. Caul is one of many Hunted currently in play and on the run, and it's only the timely intervention of a snarky lass named Ember that keeps him from getting aced two days into the hunt thanks to a failed plan of hiding in plain sight. Most of the issue is the two of them bantering while escaping jerks clamoring for the bounty, with occasional cuts to another gold-skinned lady like Caul whose name is apparently Stealth – another one of the Hunted whose luck may have just run out when she runs into Rikane Starr (whom longtime DC fans may remember as Space Ranger).

The backup story is a comic chapter in the "epic" life of Larfleeze, the scroungy Orange Lantern who wants an epic book of his iffy exploits just because the Guardians have one, so he's abducted a put-upon chronicler to do just that, until he's baited away from his power base by mysterious folks who proceed to rob him of all his stuff – and Larfleeze is all about stuff.

Scott Kolins' artwork in the backup story fares a bit better than Tom Raney's in the main story simply due to its stylization, but both are solid. Giffen's dialogue is cute and fun, establishing a swashbuckling tone for the proceedings. If you're in for some rip-roaring space adventure, you could do worse than Threshold.